Sadly enough, the disease has claimed their lives more than any other ethnic group.

But there's good news to report during this Black History Month. For the first time ever, there are fewer African-American men dying of prostate cancer.

It's a sensitive subject, perceived as taboo.

"Basically, men don't talk. Men don't like to talk,” said Charles Rice Sr.

But now the potentially deadly silence is breaking when it comes to prostate cancer, and researchers have the numbers to prove it.

For decades middle-aged African-American men have been the number one target of prostate cancer, and they still are. African-American men are 60 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than whites. They're also twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than any other ethnic group. But new research by the American Cancer Society touts, for the first time ever, a decline by 20 percent in the number of black men are dying from prostate cancer.

“All you think about is cancer, and when you think about cancer, all you think about is death, because that's what you've heard,” said Rice.

But it doesn't have to be says the 73-year-old former teacher and now education specialist for the VA hospital. At age 55 he was diagnosed when his PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen level was high.

4.0 and lower is considered normal. Rice's was slightly elevated at 5 but well below 53-year-old Michael Caldwell's.

"My PSA level was 150. It's was high,” Caldwell said.

When Caldwell was diagnosed three years ago, he showed classic signs.

“Back pain. I was laying in the bed, couldn't get up one day. I said, ‘I got to go to the doctor,’” Caldwell said. “The pain was starting to travel from the back to the hip, from the hip to the leg."

Usually there are no symptoms or earlier stages of prostate cancer, but as the disease advances symptoms include problems passing urine or the need to urinate more often, especially at night.

Blood in the urine; impotence; pain in the hips, back, chest, or other areas from cancer spreading to bones; weakness or numbness in the legs or feet; or even loss of bladder or bowel control are other symptoms.

“We'll talk about the game. We'll talk about fine women. We'll talk about good food. We'll talk about Mardi Gras, but we won't talk about, ‘Hey bro, when's the last time you went to the doctor?'” said Griggs.

More than 200,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. Of that number, researchers say 28,000 will die. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2014 233,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed, and about 29,480 men will die.

Griggs says most men wait too long to get checked. The ACS recommends yearly testing at age 50, and men with family histories as early as age 40.

Screening includes the PSA blood test or digital rectal exam known as "the finger," where a urologist searches for growths on the prostate or enlargement of the prostate gland. The latter is dreaded by many men.

“If you have a male physician and you think his finger is too large, find yourself a female physician,” said Rice.

“You got the people that are afraid of needles, afraid of the finger, you got some afraid of both. I just tell people to get both. Get over it dude,” said Griggs.

Scientists still don't know why prostate cancer claims more lives of African-American men versus Caucasian or any other group, but researches at the Tulane School of Medicine have identified some key biological differences.

“I believe our findings could open new doors to lead to create an environment where there would be more effective therapeutic interventions,” said urologist Dr. Asim Abdel-Mageed.

Abdel-Mageed has studied prostate cancer and health disparities since 1997. He says the disease, the second leading cause of death among African-American men, is more aggressive in that demographic.

"We really need to go down to the bottom of this and figure out what's going on in terms of the underlying mechanisms,” Abdel-Mageed said.

Abdel-Mageed says while one out of every seven seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer,

African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. for most cancers, and heredity plays a big part.

“Having any family members afflicted with this disease would like double or triple your risk of acquiring the disease," said Abdel-Mageed.

“With any man, sex is an important point of their life, so this is why you want nerve sparing surgery,” Rice said.

The stage of the cancer determines treatment options. Among them are watchful waiting or active surveillance, cryosurgery, radiation, hormone theropy or chemotherapies or bone-directed treatment.

Patients and doctors will find the right plan of action but to key word is to act and not let cancer catch you off guard.

In addition to the PSA and the digital rectal exam, the third and newest way to screen for prostate cancer is the urine test, which measures minute fragments of RNA and increases a doctor’s ability to pick out high-risk prostate tumors from low-risk patients.

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